I see maggots.

How would you know if the world was rotting?

I always believed that i would lead the sheltered life, the simple life. Safely cocooned in my sleepy little housing estate, tucked away in an idyllic corner of sterile Singapore, i watched the world change through the tinted glasses of television, the internet and the newspaper. I sympathized with the tsunami victims, for about 5 seconds, and then i switched channels. I watched Cops on TV, and as the men in blue safely nabbed some drug-fuelled burglar with trusty handcuffs, i thought to myself : ‘Man, I’m so glad in i’m living in Singapore. i don’t have to worry about burglars with heroin pumping in their veins, wielding a knife, breaking into homes.” Sure, the rest of the world, with all its crooks and disasters and what-have-you, made TV-time interesting and entertaining. But when the transmission had ended and it was time to switch the TV off, i thought nothing I’d seen would happen to me.

As things started to change around me, when my housing estate became frequented by police cars and thugs, when the first burglary struck the house two floors above mine, i continued to think that such stuff were unreal, it was only a little disturbance, that’s all. Such stuff only happened on TV. Things would go back to normal, and i could continue to watch the rest of the world get into all sorts of problems, like a spectator watching people getting eaten by lions at a Roman carnival.

How would I know if the world was really rotting? I found my answer in two ex-schoolmates and a lift lobby.

Enter: a couple. They look weary. The husband smokes vigorously, jabbing the lift button impatiently. In his hand is a bag containing diapers and milk powder. Milk powder’s getting expensive these days. The heavily-tattooed wife tries to coax her wailing infant by stuffing a milk bottle in her mouth, but the little one doesn’t fall for the trick. Another bundle of joy is on the way, showing up conspicuously under the wife’s tight tube top. They wait for the lift, pregnant silence between them. upon reaching home, the one that they share with his parents, they’d probably argue. But right now, he needs a smoke.

I am behind this couple. My face is oily after a day at school. In my hands is my Biology textbook. My exams are on the way, and it shows up conspicuously as dark eye circles. On reaching home, the one that i share with my mom and my junk, i’d probably take a bath. But right now I’m hungry.

There is nothing unusual about this entire situation. The one thing that stood out like a sore thumb was the fact that this couple would both turn 16 this year. Another thing that made it almost unreal was that they were both my ex-schoolmates. As i got into the lift with them, there was an awkward silence as they avoided eye contact with me. there i was, concerned about feeding my growling stomach, and there they were, concerned about feeding their child.

about three weeks ago, i was to witness the husband getting marched into a police car, handcuffed. My mother says that his drug habits came back.

And then i wondered about the sixteen-year old girl straddling two mouths to feed, buying diapers while her friends bought new clothes.

Enter: the lift lobby. Strewn with litter all the time. One day i decided to take a look at the litter, to find out what it comprised of. I knew that a group of gangsters congregated there around midnight, talking (and generating) trash and making noises like animals in love. What do gangsters eat? I decided to take a closer look.

Besides your usual suspects, like broken beer bottles, empty Ruffles packets, chewing gum, tissue paper and lumps of green viscous fluid, i noticed something strange.

There were several syringes and bits of aluminium foil.

Now, i’m sure these gangsters aren’t using the syringes to squirt water at each other, they’d get a water gun. And aluminium foil is useless for a barbeque if you cut it up into small squares.

I see the maggots now, turning blue and green into brown shit. in a world where getting pregnant is fashionable and where sex and drugs should be included in your list of things to do today, anything goes. I try to keep sane.